Royals Sign Jose Mijares

The Royals announced that they signed Jose Mijares to a one-year, Major League contract for 2012. The deal is worth $925K, according to Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star (on Twitter). Kansas City's 40-man roster is full with the addition of the 27-year-old SFX client.

“We expect Jose to be a solid addition from the left side that further strengthens our bullpen,” Royals GM Dayton Moore said in a press release. “He has been especially good against left-handed hitters in his career and will give Ned [Yost] more options to match up late in the game.”

Mijares posted a 4.59 ERA with 5.5 K/9, 5.5 BB/9 and a 31.1% ground ball rate in 49 innings for the Twins this past season, only to be non-tendered in December. He owns a more respectable 3.16 ERA in four MLB seasons to go along with career marks of 6.9 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9. Mijares will join sophomore left-handers Tim Collins and (potentially) Everett Teaford in Kansas City's bullpen.

He struggled to throw strikes and pitched behind in the count more than he had in past years, particularly vs. RHP. Due to the state of the Twins pen he was also left in to face RH hitters more than usual.

My assumption is that he was specifically made an example of, as an outcome of the front office re-shuffle. Wasn’t doing things the Twins way, it seems. Jose wasn’t the only one with a questionable offseason training regimen, but he’s the one who they cut for it. As we see, Jose comes out of this about the same, financially, so I’m not sure what message this actually conveys in the clubhouse.